# Technical SEO Audit Checklist
### By Avien Mexico — avien.site

Use this checklist to audit any website. Check each item, note what fails, and fix in priority order. This is the same process I use for client audits (including the Kynection audit that went from Ahrefs Health Score 49 to 100).

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## 1. Crawlability & Indexing

- [ ] robots.txt exists and doesn't block important pages
- [ ] robots.txt points to sitemap.xml
- [ ] XML sitemap exists at /sitemap.xml
- [ ] Sitemap includes all important pages with correct URLs
- [ ] Sitemap doesn't include 404, redirect, or noindex pages
- [ ] Google Search Console shows no crawl errors
- [ ] No orphan pages (pages with no internal links pointing to them)
- [ ] No infinite crawl traps (calendar pages, filter URLs, faceted nav)
- [ ] Crawl budget isn't wasted on low-value pages

## 2. Page Speed & Core Web Vitals

- [ ] Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) under 2.5 seconds
- [ ] First Input Delay (FID) / Interaction to Next Paint (INP) under 200ms
- [ ] Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) under 0.1
- [ ] Images are compressed and served in WebP/AVIF format
- [ ] Images have width and height attributes (prevents CLS)
- [ ] CSS and JS are minified
- [ ] Unused CSS and JS are removed or deferred
- [ ] Fonts are preloaded with font-display: swap
- [ ] Third-party scripts are loaded async or deferred
- [ ] Server response time (TTFB) under 600ms
- [ ] CDN is configured for static assets
- [ ] Browser caching headers are set correctly

## 3. On-Page SEO

- [ ] Every page has a unique, descriptive title tag (under 60 characters)
- [ ] Every page has a unique meta description (under 155 characters)
- [ ] Title tags include primary keyword near the beginning
- [ ] Only one H1 tag per page
- [ ] H1 matches the page topic and includes target keyword
- [ ] Heading hierarchy is logical (H1 > H2 > H3, no skipping)
- [ ] Images have descriptive alt text (not stuffed with keywords)
- [ ] URLs are clean, lowercase, hyphenated (no ?id=123&page=2)
- [ ] No duplicate content across pages
- [ ] Canonical tags are correctly set on every page
- [ ] Open Graph tags are set (title, description, image)
- [ ] Twitter Card meta tags are set

## 4. Internal Linking

- [ ] Homepage links to all key service/product pages
- [ ] Every page is reachable within 3 clicks from the homepage
- [ ] Anchor text is descriptive (not "click here" or "read more")
- [ ] No broken internal links (404s)
- [ ] No redirect chains (A→B→C, should be A→C)
- [ ] Breadcrumbs are implemented with structured data
- [ ] Related content is cross-linked between relevant pages

## 5. Mobile & Accessibility

- [ ] Site is fully responsive on mobile, tablet, desktop
- [ ] Viewport meta tag is set correctly
- [ ] Tap targets are at least 48x48px with adequate spacing
- [ ] Text is readable without zooming (minimum 16px body)
- [ ] No horizontal scroll on mobile
- [ ] Forms are usable on mobile (proper input types, labels)
- [ ] Color contrast meets WCAG AA (4.5:1 ratio for text)

## 6. Structured Data (Schema)

- [ ] Organization or Person schema on homepage
- [ ] BreadcrumbList schema on all inner pages
- [ ] Service schema for service pages
- [ ] FAQPage schema for FAQ sections (huge for AI search)
- [ ] Review/AggregateRating schema if applicable
- [ ] No errors in Google Rich Results Test
- [ ] Schema is valid JSON-LD (not Microdata)

## 7. Security

- [ ] HTTPS is enforced (HTTP redirects to HTTPS)
- [ ] SSL certificate is valid and not expiring soon
- [ ] No mixed content warnings (HTTP resources on HTTPS pages)
- [ ] Security headers are set: X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options
- [ ] Content-Security-Policy header is configured
- [ ] WordPress plugins are up to date (if applicable)
- [ ] Admin panel is not accessible at default URL (/wp-admin, /admin)
- [ ] File upload forms have proper validation
- [ ] No sensitive data exposed in source code or meta tags

## 8. AI Search Optimization (AEO/GEO)

- [ ] Clear, factual "About" content that AI can extract entity info from
- [ ] FAQ sections with natural-language Q&A (AI engines love this)
- [ ] Structured data helps AI understand your services
- [ ] Content answers specific questions people ask in your industry
- [ ] Brand mentions are consistent across the web (name, location, services)
- [ ] Content is written for humans first, but structured for machines
- [ ] Key pages have enough depth (500+ words) for AI to learn from

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## Scoring Guide

Count your checked items. Total possible: 65+

| Score | Rating | Action |
|-------|--------|--------|
| 55+ | Excellent | Minor tweaks, maintain what you have |
| 40-54 | Good | Fix the gaps, you're almost there |
| 25-39 | Needs Work | Prioritize the red items, consider professional help |
| Under 25 | Critical | Your site is actively losing traffic. Fix immediately |

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## Need Help?

If your audit score is under 40, or if you want someone to handle the fixes, book a free strategy call:
https://calendar.app.google/cnTsYXvRHvZursSF9

Or visit: https://avien.site/services

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*Created by Avien Mexico | avien.site | Automation Engineer & SEO Specialist*